Brother misses on Kodak deal

NEW YORK – Eastman Kodak Co. said it will spin off and sell its personalized imaging and document imaging businesses to its largest creditor, the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan, for $650 million, terminating a previous accord with Nagoya-based Brother Industries Ltd.

The U.S. photographic equipment maker, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012, had agreed to sell certain assets of its document imaging business to Brother for about $210 million.

“The KPP transaction moves us past several key hurdles in our reorganization,” said Kodak Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez. “We are very pleased with the transaction.”

In mid-April, Brother said if no qualified competing bids were submitted in time, the company would complete the acquisition of assets including document scanners, image capture software and technical services in the third quarter of 2013.

In Nagoya, a Brother representative expressed disappointment Tuesday over the termination of the company’s agreement with Kodak.

“We were acting on the assumption that something like this could happen, but it’s a shame,” the representative said.